Healthcare critic Lieberman silenced in Senate
Senator Joe Lieberman, who has forced Democrats to jump through hoops on healthcare reform in recent weeks, was effectively told to be quiet and sit down on Thursday.
Comedian turned freshman Senator Al Franken gave the order while presiding over the Senate to a surprised Lieberman.
“I object,” Franken said, denying Lieberman the unanimous consent that he needed for “an additional moment” to complete his floor speech on healthcare.
“Really? Okay,” Lieberman told Franken sheepishly. “I don’t take it personally.”
Unanimous consent is routinely given to senators so that they can have a few more minutes to wrap up their remarks. But many Democrats have apparently wanted to tell Lieberman to hush in recent weeks.
That’s because the former Democrat turned independent has repeatedly forced them to change a healthcare bill to conform with his wishes.
Democrats need Lieberman’s vote to get to the 60 required to clear Republican procedural roadblocks and pass major healthcare legislation designed to bring down costs and provide insurance to millions of Americans.
Democrats hope to succeed where Teddy Roosevelt failed on healthcare
Democrats hope to succeed where Republican President Theodore Roosevelt failed — provide medical coverage for all Americans.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who played a major role in writing the legislation now being debated in the Senate, in making the modern day case for healthcare reform cited Roosevelt’s unsuccessful 1912 campaign after he broke away from the Republican Party.
“As in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, we seek protection against the hazards of sickness,” Baucus said. “Of necessity, we seek a system uniquely adapted to American use. And recognizing the daunting task still ahead of us, we pledge ourselves to work unceasingly, to get the job done.”
Roosevelt never saw healthcare coverage for everyone enacted into law. But nearly a century later, Congress seems ready to do what Roosevelt sought and enact healthcare reform that extends medical coverage to most people in the United States.
Republicans stand solidly against the healthcare bill that the Senate is expected to debate for at least three weeks. For those watching it on C-Span don’t be confused by the title of the bill flashed at the bottom of the screen.
The Senate is using as a vehicle for the healthcare overhaul a House-passed bill making sure that military members serving overseas do not miss out on the first-time home buyers tax credit that expires in April.
The Constitution requires revenue measures to originate in the House of Representatives so it is not unusual for the Senate to use a House-passed bill as a vehicle for legislation that includes taxes.
Health care may be serious and no one is denying that fact. However, the American people are opposed to the current mess working its way through congress. It isn’t the answer to our health care problems. 54 percent are opposed. 80 percent of the people with insurance are happy with it and don’t want to change. It’s a 2000 page of mumbled jargon that congress and the president have no right making into law.
As for climate change, the facts say otherwise. The information has been manipulated to show things happening that aren’t happening. It is a scam and the governments by way of the UN are trying to force this fiasco on us so we are further indebted to the government. Don’t say there is a problem, when the facts say otherwise. The hackers did the world a favor by exposing the lies the global warming bunch have been telling the world. Al Gore should be in jail rather than flying on his jets to spread his lies.
Those of you who want to force this agenda on us are the one who will make everyone that criticizes you into the enemy. The pharmaceuticals and insurance companies are a case in point. They aren’t the enemies. Never have been.
The First Draft: More is Less
The Senate has spoken — for the moment. But it’s definitely not in one voice.
Senator Harry Reid, the leader of Democrats, last night unveiled a healthcare bill cobbled from two Senate versions.
At 2,074 pages, it is longer than the 1,990-page House bill. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office put the plan’s 10-year cost at $849 billion, which is below President Barack Obama’s $900 billion goal and the House bill which came in at more than $1 trillion.
So apparently when it comes to legislation, more pages mean lower cost.
Republicans are gearing up for a fight including possible delay tactics such as forcing the whole bill to be read out loud on the Senate floor. “It’s going to be a holy war,” Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, tells the Los Angeles Times.
Offerings from morning TV shows: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell is following Sarah Palin’s book tour and reported from Fort Wayne, Indiana, in front of a long line of people waiting for the former Alaska governor turned former Republican vice presidential candidate turned current author.
NBC’s “Today” show also had Twilight’s Robert Pattinson ahead of the movie release of “New Moon” — this is one of those if you have to ask (as I did) moments… One woman in the crowd outside the NBC studio was excitedly showing Pattinson a doll and telling him it was of him — that’s real star power.
What started out as a hopeful endeavor, and been perverted into a massive clusterf**k of corporate whoring, the likes of which I have never seen before. We should stop pretending Congress represents anything other than their corporate owners. Democracy? What a complete farce – we should just allow corporations to openly buy seats in Congress.
Healthcare vote: Obama says courageous, Palin says mess
The House passage of healthcare legislation means different things to different folks.
For President Barack Obama it was a “courageous vote” by members of Congress.
Obama went to Capitol Hill Saturday to personally press for passage. Today he was full of praise.
“Given the heated and often misleading rhetoric surrounding this legislation, I know that this was a courageous vote for many members of Congress,” Obama said in the Rose Garden.
For Sarah Palin the healthcare bill was a mess.
“We’ve got to hold on to hope, and we’ve got to fight hard because Congressional action tonight just put America on a path toward an unrecognizable country,” Palin said on her Facebook page.
“This out-of-control bureaucratic mess will be disastrous for our economy, our small businesses, and our personal liberty,” she says.
“It is a mess and will be very destructive to America. Instead of being able to go to your doctor freely to discuss your health care options, under government controlled health care you will have to wait to find out if you are qualified….”
Harold, I’m researching H.R. 3962 and I can’t find anything that supports your claims, in the bill. Where did you get this information?
Politics aside, Al and Joe still friends
A lot has happened since the 2000 presidential race, when two Senate Democrats headed their party’s ticket in a losing campaign for the White House.
Al Gore, the former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential nominee, went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize, an Oscar and a Grammy after his documentary on climate change.
His running mate, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, left the Democratic party to become an independent, which put him in a position of power player in the Senate. And now he’s a pivotal force as the congressional healthcare debate inches toward resolution.
Lieberman says he’ll join Republicans and block a final vote on a healthcare reform bill if it includes the public option.
Despite their political split, Gore told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday that he and his former running mate are still pals.
Any regrets about the “turbo boost” you gave to Lieberman’s career by picking him as your running mate — given that he’s changed his political affiliation and his current stance on healthcare? Maddow asked .
@Jack: the reason people wouldn’t like him is because he isn’t representing the people of his state, Joe has been serving his own ego since at least the Gore campaign.
Lieberman being denied shouldn’t come as a surprise. He said himself that if the bill came to the floor with a public option he would uses his position to keep the bill from being debated.
With such a plan already firmly in place in Lieberman’s mind, what does it matter if he is allowed to speak or not. He had no intention of furthering the discussion in order to come up with a working solution. He just didn’t want the public option because he is representing insurance people. And that’s as far as he thought it through.
He doesn’t want to help so he’s useless. He needs to shut up unless he’s got something of value to contribute.